FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2013 file photo, Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson (10) celebrates as he scores on a 46-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Nick Foles during the third quarter of an NFL football game against the Oakland Raiders in Oakland, Calif. The Washington Redskins made their biggest move yet of the offseason Tuesday night, April 1, 2014, adding three-time Pro Bowl receiver DeSean Jackson less than a week after the dynamic playmaker was released by the rival Philadelphia Eagles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Five days and one visit to one NFL operation after he was cut by the Eagles, DeSean Jackson had another job and a guarantee of a fresh $16 million. So, it’s clear. The whole process was Chip Kelly’s idea and Chip Kelly’s only.

How else to interpret the shift of Jackson from the Eagles to the Washington Redskins, who are OK with giving him a three-year contact? Despite reports of him being late for meetings, despite an internet report that he was alleged to have loose ties to some West Coast gangs, despite his constant demands for more money, Jackson did remain a valuable pro football player.

Even if there had not been a stampede of general managers offering a shoulder pad for him to lean on after he’d lost his Eagles job, there were the Skins. And with that, there was proof that Jackson wasn’t so dangerous a personnel risk that he would be considered professionally toxic.

Not that the Redskins haven’t made plenty of hasty and incorrect decisions on players under the ownership of Daniel Snyder, but it would be wrong to assume that they were not in possession of whatever information about Jackson that was also available to the Eagles. There are too many news outlets and too many wagging pro-football tongues to have kept whatever it was that truly bothered the Birds a secret.

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The Redskins knew what they were buying. And they bought.

With that … game on.

“Eventually people will see the real DeSean Jackson,” Jackson told reporters Wednesday on a conference call, “not the painted picture of me.”

The real DeSean Jackson is capable of ensnaring footballs — punted or passed — in mid-flight, then transporting them long distances for scoring plays. And that’s pretty much the concept in football. Take ball, run, score. Confused?

Yet for reasons that he will keep only to himself — for the clearly painted picture is that he has no time to share his thoughts with the customers unless he is under contract to do so — Kelly saw it another way. He figured that Riley Cooper was bigger and that Jeremy Maclin was more versatile and that Darren Sproles could make enough catches and that his offense was so forward-thinking as to be useful with any receivers and any quarterback. So if he could score points and win anyway, why would he need to look at his watch, then at the door, then at his watch, then at the door every time he had a team meeting, wondering if Jackson would use his 4.2 speed to rush there in time for its start?

Kelly might not be right. There still is no proof that he can win anything but a four-team mini-division and college games while in the process of having his program thrust onto NCAA probation. But the Eagles waited through 14 years of constant frustration with Andy Reid before allowing Kelly to write out the lineup cards, so he will write out the lineup cards in 2014 without the name DeSean Jackson.

And how convenient will the accounting be that the Eagles can face Jackson twice a year — enough to make the difference between winning the NFC East and Kelly moving that much closer to Black Monday, that day-after-the-season when so many coaches are fired?

The Eagles had to have been wishing that Jackson would just blend into the AFC, where they could pretend that he was in some other league. Instead, he never made it more than four Amtrak stations away. But that was the O to the X in Kelly’s play call. The Birds’ coach thought the Eagles would be better without DeSean Jackson. The team down the street countered that it would be better with DeSean Jackson.

“Moving forward,” Jackson said in that conference call, “is the best thing for me.”

The Redskins have $24 million that says they agree. The Eagles won’t argue.

All of which proves that never was about money or gangs or a player being unofficially banished from the sport. It was about Chip Kelly and his plan and his ego. So play the games, two of them annually. Then count up the score.